A connector assembly including a pair of matable connectors each having housings that are identical in shape and accommodating hermaphroditic contacts is disclosed in International Patent Application No. WO2016/063377. In a case in which a connector has a male contact and a mating connector has a female contact, the connector assembly disclosed in WO 2016/063377 does not permit changing the combination of housings and female/male contacts. That is, the connector assembly disclosed in WO 2016/063377 does not apply when the external shape of one connector is determined.
A connector on a power supply side, for example, may have a female contact so that a user's finger or the like cannot accidentally touch the contact. There are applications in which one connector is on a power supply side and an application where one connector identical in external shape is on a power receiving side, yet one of the connectors has a female contact and one has a male contact; the connector assembly disclosed in WO 2016/063377 also cannot be adapted to these applications. Separately designing and manufacturing two types of connectors having housings identical in external shape and accommodating a male contact and a female contact is conceivable, however, the number of types of parts increases, increasing manufacturing cost.